Support For Cloistered Carmelite Vocations

[Antoniette]

8/15/07, Feast of the Assumption of our Lady

I chose to write Phatmass for its focus on traditional Catholic life. I recently had the privilege of visiting a former Brooklyn Carmelite nun now at St. Helen’s Carmel in England. For those if you who didn’t know, the old Brooklyn Carmel at 745 St, John’s place in Brooklyn, was till 1997 considered one of the strictest, conservative Carmels in the world. Regrettably, the change in the neighborhood, the change in the church, and the lack of vocations caused its demise in 1997. Three surviving Sisters went to the wonderful Carmel, under Mother Miriam, in Buffalo, where they planned for an eventual return to Brooklyn. Unfortunately they did not live to see the plans reach fulfillment. Mother Miriam did send several young nuns, who now live in a beautiful, but much smaller Carmel at 361 Highland Blvd., Brooklyn, NY 11207, again under the traditional 1990 constitutions, with Mother Maria Luz of the Holy Trinity as prioress. One of the surviving sisters, Mother Marie Ange of the Infant Jesus, former Prioress and Novice Mistress, moved to the Carmel in Dallas Texas, home of a traditional Mass group. Sister Maria of the Holy Spirit was given a home at St. Helens Carmel in her native England, with another wonderful Prioress and community.

I mention these Carmels for several reasons. They are bastions of prayer and traditional faith. They also need our help. We always talk of vocations to the priesthood, but do we remember our Cloistered Sisters? There are many young girls and woman who attend traditional Mass, who may long for the spirituality of a Carmel.

These sisters need our prayers, our financial support, and very importantly, our daughters for postulants.

If we claim to support our traditional faith, we must also support these Carmels in any way we can. Please write them, pray for them and consider them for those of you discerning religious life.

Sincerely,


Antoniette

[Carolyn]

Welcome to Phatmass, Antoinette! I will definitely be praying for Carmel and for vocations. Thanks for the post!

[FaithfulRoseofMary]

Welcome aboard!
Thank you for sharing this information. God bless you for your interest and for sharing about such faithful Carmelite communities. Be assured of my prayers for these Carmels... prayers for vocations and for charitable contributions for their needs...

On the contributions note - one thing that is very helpful (particularly for lesser known communities) is information - whether that be via a brochure, an article, website, etc. The more the faithful know - in the way of information about the community (for vocations) and their needs (for contributions) - the more awareness is built among those who could be of help and/or who have interest in pursuing a vocation to these communities.

Your post provides a great awareness-building tool for these communities.
I will do what I can to share this information with young people (re: vocations) and with those who may have an interest in helping (I have family in NJ & NY).

God bless & be assured of my prayers.
FaithfulRoseofMary

[Gemma]

[quote name='Antoniette' post='1359293' date='Aug 15 2007, 03:24 PM']8/15/07, Feast of the Assumption of our Lady

I chose to write Phatmass for its focus on traditional Catholic life. I recently had the privilege of visiting a former Brooklyn Carmelite nun now at St. Helen’s Carmel in England. For those if you who didn’t know, the old Brooklyn Carmel at 745 St, John’s place in Brooklyn, was till 1997 considered one of the strictest, conservative Carmels in the world. Regrettably, the change in the neighborhood, the change in the church, and the lack of vocations caused its demise in 1997. Three surviving Sisters went to the wonderful Carmel, under Mother Miriam, in Buffalo, where they planned for an eventual return to Brooklyn. Unfortunately they did not live to see the plans reach fulfillment. Mother Miriam did send several young nuns, who now live in a beautiful, but much smaller Carmel at 361 Highland Blvd., Brooklyn, NY 11207, again under the traditional 1990 constitutions, with Mother Maria Luz of the Holy Trinity as prioress. One of the surviving sisters, Mother Marie Ange of the Infant Jesus, former Prioress and Novice Mistress, moved to the Carmel in Dallas Texas, home of a traditional Mass group. Sister Maria of the Holy Spirit was given a home at St. Helens Carmel in her native England, with another wonderful Prioress and community.

I mention these Carmels for several reasons. They are bastions of prayer and traditional faith. They also need our help. We always talk of vocations to the priesthood, but do we remember our Cloistered Sisters? There are many young girls and woman who attend traditional Mass, who may long for the spirituality of a Carmel.

These sisters need our prayers, our financial support, and very importantly, our daughters for postulants.

If we claim to support our traditional faith, we must also support these Carmels in any way we can. Please write them, pray for them and consider them for those of you discerning religious life.

Sincerely,
Antoniette[/quote]

Welcome to PM, Antoinette.

Cloister Outreach has been in the business of promoting cloistered vocations for almost 20 years. Just about all of the monasteries on our website: [url="http://cloisters.tripod.com/"]http://cloisters.tripod.com/[/url] have experienced an increase in vocations.

Blessings,
Gemma

[Thomist-in-Training]

I attend Mass at the Carmel in Dallas--I've only gone to the Latin Mass held there, not the Conventual one, but they sure have a beautiful Chapel and grounds. If anyone was wondering.

[Chiquitunga]

I attend Mass at the Carmel in Dallas--I've only gone to the Latin Mass held there, not the Conventual one, but they sure have a beautiful Chapel and grounds. If anyone was wondering.

Hey, I just found a site with some pictures of the Carmel in Dallas - Monastery of the Infant of Prague & St. Joseph At the bottom of the page there's a link to more photos too.

I've just added it to my little photo page of Carmels. It has a real Spanish mission look to it, similar to Georgetown - not unlike many of the Carmels in Spain.

The nuns only occasionally attend (from their choir to the side of the altar) either of the two the Traditional Latin Masses offered in their chapel on Sundays by the FSSP, according to the Mater Dei Latin Mass Community's site. They have one a little earlier in the morning on Sundays before the Latin Mass community comes - though I'm sure they unite themselves to these two extra Masses offered at their monastery, wherever they happen to be in the monastery. But this Carmel is nevertheless, I have heard, one of the most traditional. They are under the 1990s and in the St. Joseph's Association.

[photosynthesis]

are there any cloistered carmelite orders that have the Tridentine Mass for women?

[Gemma]

[quote name='photosynthesis' post='1367873' date='Aug 22 2007, 12:43 PM']are there any cloistered carmelite orders that have the Tridentine Mass for women?[/quote]

Valparaiso, NE -- and they're exceptionally picky

Sr. Teresita, OCD, is starting a Traddie Carmel. Go to the "Other Religious Communities" link on my website [url="http://cloisters.tripod.com/"]http://cloisters.tripod.com/[/url] and look for "New Communities Consortium." I think it's the ad on the upper right.

One of these days, our proposed Cloisterites will be founding the Carmelite Nuns of Perpetual Adoration [url="http://cloisters.tripod.com/carmelites/"]http://cloisters.tripod.com/carmelites/[/url] But that's many years down the road.

HTH.

Blessings,
Gemma

[photosynthesis]

Are the Carmelites in Valparaiso, NE in communion with the Pope or are they schismatic? I like to know these things so that if I ever come in contact with a young woman who wants to discern a Carmelite vocation, I can direct her to a good traditional order.

[Chiquitunga]

[quote name='photosynthesis' post='1368135' date='Aug 22 2007, 03:33 PM']Are the Carmelites in Valparaiso, NE in communion with the Pope or are they schismatic?[/quote]
Yes, totally. They're the only one in the USA (and the only OCD Carmel with the TLM in the world) completely in union with the Church. There is an SSPX one in Spokane, WA and then there's the one in Colorado Springs (you can search here in VS for more information on them), which are not in union with the Church.

[photosynthesis]

Praise God for such wonderful people of prayer... I will definitely recommend them to all of my sisters in Christ discerning their vocations.

[Chiquitunga]

[quote name='photosynthesis' post='1368491' date='Aug 22 2007, 08:31 PM']Praise God for such wonderful people of prayer... I will definitely recommend them to all of my sisters in Christ discerning their vocations.[/quote]
There's some great Carmels on this photo page also: [url="http://picasaweb.google.com/ocdnuns"]http://picasaweb.google.com/ocdnuns[/url] :j

Most of the pictures I got from the book, [url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=66675"]Carmel in the United States[/url]

[Chiquitunga]

I just noticed on the Mater Dei Latin Mass community's site, the newly renovated public of the Discalced Carmelites there, where they have the TLM on Sundays - it's sooo beautiful!!!

Before ...

[center][img]http://web2.airmail.net/carlsch/MaterDei/images/altar4.jpg[/img][/center]


not bad but ...



















After!




[center]
[img]http://web2.iadfw.net/carlsch/MaterDei/images/newaltar.jpg[/img][/center]


Wow!


[url="http://web2.iadfw.net/carlsch/MaterDei/index.htm"]Mater Dei Latin Mass Community of Dallas[/url]

[Chiquitunga]

Hey, I just found a site with some pictures of the Carmel in Dallas - Monastery of the Infant of Prague & St. Joseph At the bottom of the page there's a link to more photos too.

Dallas Carmel reminds me a lot of the Carmel of La Aldehuela, founded by St. Maravillas. (scroll down for pictures)

a little more on her and the Association of St. Teresa here, which were the ones that desired to keep the original Constitutions of 1581, updated and renewed in 1990

[Chiquitunga]

Just linking this thread here New House of Discernment, Brooklyn

[Chiquitunga]

a bigger picture of the newly renovated chapel at the OCD Carmel in Dallas ... :love:
 

[Chiquitunga]

A couple articles on the Brooklyn Carmelites!

[url="http://www.yeslord.com/doves/Theotokos2004-September-5.pdf"]A Brooklyn Blessing[/url] & [url="http://www.yeslord.com/doves/Doves2004-December-10.pdf"]The Fruit of Community Living is Unity[/url] (2nd article)

[Carolyn]

A couple articles on the Brooklyn Carmelites! :pray:

A Brooklyn Blessing & The Fruit of Community Living is Unity (2nd article)

Great post! Thanks for the links!

[Chiquitunga]

New Home in Brooklyn for Carmelite Sisters

Also, this site is a great resource for info on different communities!

http://www.religiousministries.com/

It even has Dallas and Buffalo Carmels listed, with how many professed/novices/postulants, etc.